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Ahmadinejad Wants the Charges Dropped Against Hizbullah - or Else

(Telegraph-UK) Con Coughlin - What better way to distract attention from Iran's deepening economic crisis - the direct result of Ahmadinejad's intransigence over the nuclear program - than to stage a high-profile visit to about the only place in the world where he can truly be guaranteed a popular welcome. During the past three decades, Iran has invested billions of dollars in Hizbullah. The fact that Hizbullah is now Lebanon's main political party, and a leading member of the coalition government, shows how far Iran's pet militia has come during the past 25 years. Its leadership also shares Iran's nihilistic attitude towards the feisty little Jewish state located on the other side of Lebanon's southern border. But it is Hizbullah's continued involvement in terrorism that is the real motivation behind Ahmadinejad's visit. Details of the UN tribunal's findings leaked to the Beirut press suggest that, apart from Hizbullah mastermind Imad Mugniyeh, the investigators have uncovered evidence that links as many as 50 senior Hizbullah officials to the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Diplomatic sources in Beirut tell me that Saad Hariri, the current prime minister and son of the murdered politician, has offered Hizbullah leader Nasrallah a deal whereby the assassination is blamed entirely on Mugniyeh, who is no longer in a position to face criminal prosecution. But Nasrallah, who regards Mugniyeh as a "martyr" to Hizbullah's cause, has refused. By parading through Shia-dominated southern Lebanon, Ahmadinejad was sending an uncompromising message to Hariri's government to drop the charges against Hizbullah or face the consequences.
2010-10-15 10:02:29
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